Abstract:

The assessment of facial growth and development is important to determine the optimal timing for different treatment procedures in the growing patient. Many skeletal maturity indicators have been proposed over previous years because chronologic age is not sufficient alone for assessing the stage of development in a growing child. Maturational status has been traditionally evaluated by hand-wrist radiographs which are considered the gold standard. Different radiographic methods have been evaluated for their correlation with the skeletal maturity, and simple and practical alternatives to the hand-wrist radiograph have been presented. In accordance with the ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principle, if evaluation of skeletal age is indicated, it is important to take radiographs with the lowest dose. The objective of this review was to evaluate different methods for assessing skeletal maturity in dentistry.

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